Australian Dictionary of Biography

Father Maurie Crocker, Berkeley, 1998

Wollongong City Libraries

Maurice Anthony Crocker (1939–1998), soldier, teacher, boxer, Catholic priest, and whistleblower, was born on 1 September 1937 at Hamilton, New Zealand, only child of John Rockwell Crocker, civil servant, and his wife Jean Theresa, née Caldwell. Maurie (sometimes spelled Morrie) attended Whangārei Boys’ High School (1951–54). After various jobs in the North Island and several bouts as an amateur boxer, on 20 September 1956 he began his compulsory military training, serving in the Royal New Zealand Infantry Corps. Released on 12 November 1957, he enrolled at Auckland Teachers’ College, graduating in 1959. He began teaching at schools in the city.

On 15 June 1961 Crocker enlisted in the regular army. He served in Malaya and Singapore with the 1st Battalion, (Royal) New Zealand Infantry Regiment, from November that year to October 1962, when a knee injury caused his repatriation and transfer to the Royal New Zealand Army Education Corps. Disillusioned with military life, he was discharged on 28 June 1964. He resumed teaching on the east coast and then in Manawatu. Between 1960 and 1966 he lived on and off with his parents at Roskill and Gisborne. He also studied and taught Māori culture and history at Auckland Museum, and took history courses at the University of Auckland and at Massey University, Palmerston North.

In 1969 Crocker decided on another career change: this time to become a priest. When asked by a fellow member of the clergy in later years why he left teaching for the priesthood, he replied ‘don’t really know. Just a feeling, I guess’ (Baker 2006, 52). He entered the Missionary Society of St Columban, Lower Hutt, but left at the end of 1973. His behaviour—a penchant to question authority, occasional heavy drinking, and smoking—had not impressed his teachers. In 1974 he entered Holy Cross Seminary near Dunedin. Asked to leave, he returned to teaching at an Auckland boarding school, but found teaching no longer satisfied him.

Leaving New Zealand for Australia in 1977, Crocker entered St Paul’s National Seminary for late vocations at Kensington, Sydney. St Paul’s was intended to instruct older men, and training took four years rather than the traditional seven. With time already spent in training in New Zealand, he was ordained for the diocese of Wollongong in 1979. He worked at Campbelltown, first as an assistant priest, where he established a gym that he called ‘Heaven’s Gate.’ It was part of his personal crusade, in which hard physical work brought a form of salvation and hope.

By 1988, following postings to Ingleburn and Nowra, Crocker had moved to St Mary’s Catholic Church, Berkeley, in Wollongong’s southern suburbs, as the administrator; he was appointed its parish priest in 1989. He established another gym, which included a boxing school. It was more than a workout and training space, becoming a place for aspiring boxers and troubled youths as well as somewhere to put his crusade into action. In 1989 several boys alleged that Father Peter Lewis Comensoli (not to be confused with Peter Andrew Comensoli, a cousin, who was also a priest) and the Christian Brother Michael Evans had sexually abused them. Crocker believed that the Catholic Church and the police would pursue justice for the boys.

Crocker took the allegations to Wollongong’s Catholic bishop, William Murray, who failed to act. In 1990 Crocker went with the boys to Wollongong police, who found insufficient evidence against Evans and did not pursue investigations about Comensoli. Having heard more allegations, in 1993 Crocker went to the Illawarra Mercury, which investigated and published a front-page article naming Evans and Comensoli. The following year, the Independent New South Wales parliamentarian John Hatton moved successfully to establish a royal commission into the New South Wales Police Service. Several months later, the commission’s terms of reference were extended to include paedophile activity. Crocker’s concerns were eventually validated. Evans was investigated and in 1994 an arrest warrant issued, but he committed suicide before he could face court. Comensoli was convicted of indecent assault.

Continuing to train boxers through tough sessions, Crocker also ran with them, barefoot. He was an unconventional priest: he swore, had missing teeth and tattoos, and probably had more belief in training than in his faith. However, the inaction of the Catholic Church proved too much. In 1995 he believed that there were ‘still other Comensoli victims out there’ who were ‘hesitant to come forward’ (Broken Rites 2019). Depressed and ostracised by some of his fellow clergy, he took his life on 26 March 1998 in his gym at Berkeley. Following a funeral at St Mary’s Church, he was buried in Lakeside Memorial Park cemetery, Dapto, with full Catholic honours.